Caribbean, CARICOM, Elections, General T&T, Guyana, Racism Watch

Granger Bent On Using Caricom Team to “Robber- Stamp” His Coup

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By Stephen Kangal
March 17, 2020

Stephen KangalIt is very clear that incumbent Guyanese President David Granger’s current agenda is to use the third- appointed Caricom Observer but low level Team to rubber-stamp and add some “legitimacy” to his virtual “coup” attempt of the Guyana Elections 2020.

One must appreciate that this intervention Team was hurriedly constituted by current Caricom Chairman, Mia Mottley after all the accredited Observer Missions that witnessed the conduct of the March 2 elections as well as the three recounts of the Region Four poll, unanimously criticised that ‘process’ used by Returning Officer (RO) Vraimont Mingo as being illegal and lacking in both credibility and transparency.

The cadre of Observers left Guyana in abject disgust and revulsion to report to their principals.

One is also in a current dilemma whether the remit of the new Caricom, all-Afro- Caribbean Team is to supervise and /or observe the recount of the ballot boxes of Region Four or of all all Ten Regions, the results of nine of which were never in any contention.

One is also unsure of the Terms of Reference of the Team as to whether it is accredited under the requisite General Election (Observer) Act or the Constitution of Guyana. Both do not provide for any non-GECOM extra-territorial entity such as this Caricom Team to supervise the recounts according to a Guyana Chronicle Report today quoting eminent legal luminaries.

Having regard to the pervasive Indo-Afro ethnic sensibilities underpinning the Guyanese elections, the actual ethnic polarisation of the consequent results and this being Caricom’s third intervention, one would have reasonably expected the appointment of a credible team of officials that would have and can resonate with and be bought into by all the multi-ethnic Guyanese people.

This Team was requested by President David Granger himself and apparently supported by current Opposition Leader Bharat Jagdeo.

This team has no institutional memory of the actual conduct of the elections as the departed Official Observer Teams possessed. It will be entering the Arthur Chung Conference Centre today unaware of the problems that besieged the aborted post-elections tabulation exercise that was blatantly manipulated by RO Mingo of Region Four.

This Mission cannot achieve the Mia Mottley’s touted confidence building- scenario in the Guyanese electoral process because Granger will have none of it.

It is said that justice must not only be served – not delayed but it must be seen and appear to be done. This universally accepted and subscribed fundamental principle of jurisprudence was blatantly ignored in determining the composition of this Caricom Team unless President Granger also stipulated that it must be all Afro-Caribbean to harmonise with his clandestine agenda given the long, strong and loyal tentacles of Pan Caribbean tribalism that endows the Caribbean integration movement with an exclusive African orientation and flavour.

9 thoughts on “Granger Bent On Using Caricom Team to “Robber- Stamp” His Coup”

  1. To prematurely attribute clandestine motives to the Caricom team is plain wrong, especially when a Guyanese high court judge recently ruled that the Caricom team is not legitimate and that the Granger-Jagdeo agreement is illegal.
    It seems that certain Afrocentric forces in Guyanese high places are determined to ensure that Granger remains the President.
    Any objective observer would wonder why a chief returning officer would declare a winner without presenting transparent results and then go into hiding.
    The silence of Caribbean journalists and leaders other than Motley is also astonishing. The most vocal critics of the rigged process were the observer representatives of developed, democratic nations.
    Caribbean leaders remained silent before and allowed Burnham to lead Guyana down a dictatorial path to ruin.
    Now we are also seeing a politically influenced justice system favoring Granger.
    Motley of Barbados should be praised for her efforts.

  3. Mottley failed on several counts. She agreed to this Third Mission at the request of Granger without assessing the legal feasibility of an extra-Guyanese supervising the recounts and taking the place of GECOM. In fact Granger set her up and she began to make outlandish claims that the Team will sanitise the electoral frauds of the past.For Statesman to be involved in this mess they should all resign including Jagdeo whose lawyers are the ones that filed the injunctions. This is a comedy of forced errors that was badly handled by Mottley including the composition of the all Afro-Caribbean Team sent to adjudicate on an electoral matter in an Indo-Afro society of Guyana. I agree with all that you have said except the first paragraph that tends to derogate from my fore-sight in seeing through things before they happen as a commentator with visionary intelligence and ESP. I am following this issue 12 hours a day.

  4. Granger has declared he wants to bring back the Burnham years. He was a military leader in Burnham army. Burnham was known to rig every election until the monster died of throat cancer. During his reign Indian people suffered immensely from banditry, rape and murder. In the Guyanese diaspora there are over 300,000 Indian people scattered globally.

    The rigging of elections has been a PNC tradition. Today they are wearing the disguise of APNU. If he steals this one he will flood Guyana with African people and strengthen his power base. He will put them all in the oil industry. Same as Eric did when he flooded Point Fortin with Grenadians and St. Vincentians in the 60s. The oil industry became his power base. Granger is not doing anything new from the PNC playbook. Subvert the process, then frustrate it using the courts and his supporters, then seize power. Unleash terror on the Indian population and cause them to flee as Burnham did. This has implications for TnT as it sets a new low for power grabbing Caribbean leaders. God help us.

    1. Take it easy, with your nancy stories… Mamoo
      Trinidad still has an open door policy with TB and MDR TB India (no visa required). 1,400 people will die there today alone, 500,000 die annually (about 3,000 died globally from CoronaVirus since). Yuh see Mamoo, we are not ‘Racist’ Mammo, We are just Doltish, Mamoo.
      Gave our health care system to Indians (UNC Indians too), now they are free to play this crisis to their political advantage, Mamoo…
      Jesus, they pulled the story (interview) with Kwesi Browne and coronavirus from their newspapers…

      Have a great day Mamoo

  5. During this power grabbing time by Granger, Former President Jagdeo should be meeting with officials in the American Embassy. He should also be writing to the UN regarding this situation. He should be calling on Charandass the man who triggered this series of events for some advice since he understands the internal working of APNU. More importantly he should be in contact with representatives of the European Union.

    Power is not for the faint, but it is for those who are prepared to die for it. Democracy is the oxygen of the people, starve them and the nation dies. The Former US President Carter through the Carter Foundation has considerable clout in Guyana from past election observation. Despite up in years one phone call to Trump by him will suffice to end the deadlock. Trump can call Granger and ask him a simple question “ do you want me to send the CIA and have them do a Chavez on you?”. “Or would you prefer me to tell Exxon or any other company to end all business deals in Guyana?”

    It is very difficult to reason with military people. They move under the radar and does not care about democracy. Burnham used to have “blackouts” (power outages) and instruct Granger in the middle of the night to send food and supplies under the cover of darkness to his supporters. These are despotic men who in their reckless hunger for power has walked over the corpse of thousands. We have seen it in Haiti with Papa and Baby Doc and the dreaded Matoot(Ruthless killers)supporters of those dictators. Burnham took a mineral and resource rich Guyana and sold the British rail to Zambia and pocketed millions in Swiss account that nobody to this day in Guyana has the intelligence to find. Dictators pocket billions as Saddam did some $18 billion. Burnham was no different. Granger must be STOPPED….for the future of Guyana to be brighter.

  7. Very early in her current chairmanship PM Mia Mottley of Barbados has left much to be desired in her handling and spearheading of Caricom’s interventionist role in seeking to mediate and resolve the political crisis in Guyana. Shen relied exclusively on Granger’s interpretation of events and the way forward by requesting the Caricom Third Team that was made up exclusively of Afro-Caribbean officials to deal with an Afro-Indian bifurcated and driven crisis. That decision lacked sensibility and was a failure from the start. Secondly Granger began to move from Region Four Count to an “all national count’ involving the Ten Regions in the poll.
    All the while Mia Mottley did not look at the electoral legal regime in Guyana to determine whether the Team she appointed could in fact supervise the recounts and replace the GEOCOM in the contest of an extra-legal context. Granger was not in a adequate mental state to make these decisions given the stress of the conduct of the elections. In fact a High Court injunction was filed by a Granger supporter to outlaw the Caricom Team from presiding over the recount of all the Regions. Mia Mottley must do better and rely on her advisers especially the Secretary General of the Caribbean Community.

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